


The End of Circles

by skarlatha



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alexandria Safe-Zone, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Rickyl Writer's Group, Temporarily Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-02 01:05:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5227991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skarlatha/pseuds/skarlatha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rick is determined to find love in Alexandria. Daryl can be patient.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End of Circles

**Author's Note:**

> Minor spoilers for s6e5. 
> 
> Thanks to [TWDObsessive](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/TWDObsessive) for the title and [MAE](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/Michelle_A_Emerlind) for giving this a quick proofread!
> 
> This is being posted as my entry for the November 2015 Rickyl Writer's Group Challenge, which was to post a fic with exactly 800 words. There's still time to join the challenge! Anyone who is a member of the RWG can participate, and joining is super easy! [Join here!](http://rickylwritersgroup.tumblr.com/submit)

Jessie didn’t work out.

There was too much baggage, not enough trust. Pete’s ghost wavered between them, and Rick was too wild for her and he knew it from the start. So it lasted a few weeks, and then it was gone.

Monica lasted a bit longer. She had always been single, so there wasn’t a dead spouse in the way, no children to compete with for her time. But even in the apocalypse she couldn’t quite manage to keep herself from feeling faint and sick at the sight of blood, and since even in the best of times Rick was frequently covered in it, it couldn’t have worked.

Stacy only lasted two fantastic nights, but Rick discovered quickly that he couldn’t quite keep up with a nineteen-year-old former gymnast, and when Carl asked him if this meant he had two sisters now, Rick broke it off immediately.

And then there were others, none of whom had kept Rick’s interest for long. Despite their many virtues, Rick managed to find something wrong with all of them. Laura was too quiet, Amelia was too loud. Della was a vegetarian. Tasha didn’t like how much time Rick tended to spend with Daryl, out on the porch of their house on quiet nights. Brandy insisted on wearing lavender perfume that gave Rick a headache. Kelly’s eyes weren’t blue enough. Meredith and Judy didn’t get along.

The seasons turned around them all, winter to spring to summer to fall, and on and on again. Alexandria was safe, calm. The walls had been shored up, the people trained in combat, more doctors brought in. Judith was ten now, still living with Rick and Daryl in the home they’d been assigned when they came here even though the others had moved on to their own houses, their own families. Even Carl had married and picked an empty house nearby. But Daryl… Daryl had stayed, and Rick was glad for the company.

“We’re gettin’ old, Rick,” Daryl said late one night, a beer from the newly-constructed Genesis Brewery in his hand. “Never thought that would happen. Figured we’d both be dead by now.”

Rick smiled, looking over at Daryl in the darkness. The night air was muggy, warm: Indian summer weather at the end of October, and the moonlight caught the silver strands that had begun to thread their way into the archer’s hair. “But we’re not.”

“I know,” Daryl said. He let out a long sigh. “You think this one’s the one? Janice or whatever?”

Rick snorted out a laugh and took a sip of his own beer. “Myra,” he said. “Janice was the one with the cheekbones. Back in April.”

Daryl pulled his feet up and perched in the chair, staring out into the quiet streets. “Can’t keep track no more. Waste of my time to try.”

Rick laughed again, then sobered when he noticed that Daryl wasn’t joining in. He sighed. “No, Myra’s not the one. I can already tell.”

Daryl grunted and twirled his beer bottle in his hands, then stood up, his joints creaking as he unfolded himself from his sitting position. “Be inside when you’re done,” he said, and he disappeared into the house.

Myra ended in November, followed by a Thanksgiving fling with Cora and a torrid Christmas affair with Diane. January was taken up by two separate women who were both named Alison, February was Marilyn, and then Heidi lasted for the rest of spring and summer, until it was November again and Rick’s heart felt both empty and heavy at the same time.

Daryl’s hair was more silver than brown now, his hands leathered and rough from years of working in the garage he’d been given, and Rick’s own hands slid over Heidi’s soft, unmarred skin and all he could think about was how he never felt safer, warmer, more _right_ than he did when he sat on the porch with Daryl drinking beer and sharing the experience of life with the only person he trusted with his.

“I’m sorry,” he told Heidi, sitting up and re-fastening the buttons on his shirt with shaking hands. “I have to go.”

He walked briskly through the dark streets of Alexandria, snowflakes catching in his curls as he headed toward home. The windows were dark, the house quiet and still, and Rick slowly walked down the hallway until he reached Daryl’s room. He knocked lightly on the door and pushed it open at the archer’s gruff permission, then stood there in the doorway and stared at Daryl, who was lying in bed with the moonlight streaming in from the window. “Daryl,” he whispered, the name heavy on his tongue like honey, like blackberries, like time.

“You done?” Daryl asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Rick said, understanding dawning on him at last. “I’m done.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](http://skarlatha.tumblr.com)!  
> And join the [Rickyl Writer's Group](http://rickylwritersgroup.tumblr.com/submit)!


End file.
